They Call Them the Blues for A Reason
by GrandmaSophie
Summary: 'Get ready for the game of your life,' Clarke whispered into Lexa's ear, a knowing smile on her face. Lexa really likes football, but she doesn't understand 'footy', which makes Anya decide to take her cousin Lexa to the most important footy game of the year: State of Origin. At the game, she meets major Queensland fan Clarke, and her just as big fans of New South Wales, Octavi
1. Queenslander

Lexa was beginning to wonder if this really was a good idea. It was 8:15, a little under fifteen minutes until kick off and, as much as she was looking forward to the game, she would rather be in bed watching the games from back home she was missing out on. It wasn't that Lexa had anything against Australian football, it was just she had no idea how the game actually worked, and she was freezing her ass off waiting for her cousin to come back with coffee.

As Lexa pulled her maroon scarf tighter around her neck, looking idly at the big white letters embroidered on it, "QLD", Lexa couldn't help but wonder why the two states did this every year, and why it was such a big deal. Not that she could complain; she was just as loyal and proud of her team back home as these people were to their state team.

Suddenly, something slammed into her side, nearly knocking her out of her seat.

'Oh, crap, sorry 'bout that. Are you right?' When Lexa recovered, she looked over to the voice, and was met with a girl, about her age, with half her face covered in maroon paint, the other half had "QLD" written with white paint.

'I'm fine, thank you,' Lexa just smiled at the girl, because she wasn't really mad. This girl seemed to be sitting next to her, and Lexa could never be mad about sitting next to a pretty girl.

'Guys, see what you made me do? You made me run into a fellow Queensland supporter! That's very rude you know. Wait,' the blonde glared over at her friends, who, from what Lexa could see, were dressed head to toe in blue, and then turned around to face Lexa again, 'you're American? No offence, but what are you doing here?'

'I'm here with my cousin. She got tickets and decided it would be educational for me to come along and watch.'

Lexa had only been in the country for a few weeks, and everywhere she went was covered in maroon, and the occasional blue, signifying that the game was close. Anya had managed to score tickets before they sold out, and paid a small fortune at the same time. She explained to Lexa, as it was Game 3 and a home game for Queensland, the tickets sold out within a few hours and got even more expensive, and Lexa likened it to a finals game of her team, the 49ers, versus another team.

'You got the wrong team, girl. Everyone knows that New South Wales is gonna take this game tonight. Queensland's gonna get creamed, just like last game.' The girl on the other side of the blonde, with glossy brown hair tied up into a bun and her face fully covered with blue paint and "NSW" in white written on her forehead.

'Quiet, Octavia. Don't listen to her, Queensland's gonna kick butt tonight, just like Game 1.' As the blonde spoke, she leaned in slightly to Lexa, probably to show her friends that Lexa was on her team and wasn't going to let her switch teams.

'Clarke, stop,' the girl, with long black hair tied into a ponytail underneath a blue wig, said, before pushing the blonde – Clarke, her name was – to the side to sit next to Lexa and wrap an arm around her neck, 'listen, newbie, everyone knows that New South Wales is going to take home the win and break Queensland's streak. Its fact, everyone knows it.'

'Look, she's wearing a Queensland scarf, she's obviously not going to switch teams and side with the Blusers, no one is that stupid, Raven.'

Clarke yanked Raven out of her seat and plopped back down onto it, a wide smile stretched across her face. Lexa had a similar smile on her face, though one would describe it as a smirk rather than a smile. It amused Lexa to watch these girls argue playfully about that would probably start a fistfight back home.

'Don't even listen to them,' Clarke smiled, only taking to her now, 'we're on an 8 year winning streak, 9 this year. And this is a home game, too. We're going to win and that's it.'

Clarke sat back in her seat, grinning at Lexa, and Lexa was pretty sure the whole stadium could hear it. There was no doubt that the woman was pretty, but seeing her talk about something that she was clearly so passionate about, well, if Lexa wasn't already gay, she sure was now.

'So, how long have you been in Oz for, uh…?'

'Only a couple of weeks. I'm Lexa,'

'Well, nice to meet you, Lexa. I'm Clarke,' Clarke stuck her hand out, and Lexa took it, giving it a quick but firm shake. Lexa had noticed that handshakes seemed to be how everyone greeted each other, not that that was anything new to Lexa, it was just that it happened so often, and usually in casual greeting, that she was taken aback a little.

'Are you gracing us with your presence for very long, Lexa?'

'When I decide to go back, I guess,' Lexa didn't really have a set time for her visit. She just decided it was time to visit her cousin and learn about her country, 'I figured I would just spend some over here and explore a bit,'

'Good thing you came to Queensland, then. There're plenty of attractions here. You've got the theme parks on the Gold Coast, the Big Pineapple and Australia Zoo, and that's only the start! I'm sure the person you're staying with, if you are actually staying with someone, has ideas on where they're gonna take you,'

'Actually,' a new voice joined the conversation, Anya, 'I have planned on taking my dear cousin to Australia Zoo on Friday.' Anya took the vacant seat next to Lexa and handed her a take away cup that was blissfully warm.

'Good idea, tourists always seem to like it there,'

'It's also a good way to point out which of our wildlife won't actually try to kill you,'

At this point, Lexa was more than a little confused. Anya and Clarke seemed to know each other. Anya hand never mentioned any Clarke before, and neither an Octavia or Raven. Maybe they went to school together, or they worked together.

'Oh, Lexa, this is Clarke. I met her through Lincoln, remember me mentioning him?' Lexa nodded, because she did. Lincoln was the guy who ran the local pub in Anya's town, and Anya always spoke highly of him.

Did this mean that Clarke lived in the same town as Anya? Lexa was about to ask when the loud speakers boomed out, the commentators popped up on the giant screen and announced that the game was going to begin.

'Get ready for the game of your life,' Clarke whispered into Lexa's ear, a knowing smile on her face.


	2. Making History

The deafening roar of the crowd drowned out the siren that called the end of the match. Clarke, Lexa and Anya were on their feet, cheering along with the other 52, 000 people in the crowd. It was the biggest win in State of Origin history – 52-6 to Queensland – and they were the lucky people who could say that they were there for that historic moment. Raven and Octavia shared a look of pure loathing while their friends cheered and rubbed it in their faces. Both girls knew they were in for a long night.

'Suck on that! I told you we were gonna win! I knew it! You losers didn't have Buckley's chance of beating us,' Clarke cheered, coming up between Raven and Octavia and throwing her arms around their shoulders. They were standing outside Suncorp Stadium; people dressed in blue were hanging their heads and glaring at the people dressed in maroon as they really stuck it to them. Lexa noted this appeared to be Queenslanders in their natural form.

'Shut it, Clarke. We all know the ref is full of shit,' Octavia scowled, pushing Clarke's arm off her, 'we all know that that try before half wasn't one. Full of shit…'

'I never took you for a sore loser, Octavia,' Lexa smirked, and Octavia glared daggers at her, 'I guess Clarke was right when she said that New South Wales sucked,'

'Shut up. You didn't even know the game existed until tonight.' The entire group burst out laughing, even Raven was laughing, despite the dig at her team.

'Well,' Clarke said, turning to face her friends, clapping her hands together, 'I think this calls for a celebration. I have grog back at the hotel. We stopped by the bottle-o when we came in this morning.' Despite the reason, Octavia and Raven nodded their heads, eagerly accepting Clarke's offer. 'Lexa, Anya, you in?'

Lexa turned to Anya, as it was really her decision as Lexa really had no idea. 'Of course, Clarke. What better way to celebrate a defining moment in Origin history?'

At this point, Lexa was still more than a little confused about everything. What on earth was grog? As for bottle-o, Lexa wasn't even sure that was actually a word. It wasn't the only confusing thing that had happened that night. When her new friends and her cousin had started throwing the words "Cockroach" and "Cane toad" around, Lexa was fairly sure that they weren't referring to the animals. The only confusing thing that had happened to Lexa that night was when Clarke had suddenly started to smudge something over her eyes, and when Lexa pulled back, Clarke had simply held up the small pallet of maroon face paint. Lexa had let Clarke smear her face in the stuff, so she now had maroon face paint covering her eyes, which Clarke had affectionately nicknamed her war paint.

After a rather cramped taxi ride, the five girls were making their way inside the hotel, and cramping themselves into the lift to get to the floor that Clarke, Raven and Octavia were staying on. Lexa couldn't help but wonder what they looked like to others, four girls, two with blue paint smeared over their faces, and three others with maroon paint and smiles spread across their faces. Despite her confusion, Lexa was very much enjoying the company of the four other girls, and learning a lot of things at the same time. Like when she mentioned about having bought a pair of "flip flops", almost all of the girls had yelled 'They're called thongs!' at her. Lexa had come to Australia to learn about the history and the people, but she was definitely learning more than that.

'To Origin history!' Clarke toasted, holding up her bottle in the air as the girls sat around in the room, having cracked open the stubbies and getting ready to party.

'To Origin history!' The others cheered, clinking the bottles together and laughing, Raven plugging her phone into a pair of speakers and turning it up so the music flowed and filled the room, but was quiet enough that they could all talk without having to raise their voices too much.

Lexa simply observed the conversations for a while, watching as Raven and Octavia tried to convince Anya that, in fact, the ref was full of shit and Queensland had only won because the ref hadn't called out the knock ons and been too harsh on the Blues. Anya bit back with something, but Lexa wasn't listening; she was too busy studying the stubbie cooler that had "To have and to hold and to keep your beer cold" written on it. Lexa figured it was from a wedding or something, but she was starting to catch onto the Australian sense of humour, so she wasn't completely sure.

'Hey,' Clarke said, plopping down on the bed next to Lexa, causing Lexa to look.

'Hey,' Lexa smiled, her heart beat suddenly starting to speed up.

'Are you actually going to drink that, or are you just gonna keep looking at the cooler all night?' Clarke laughed, and then motioned at the bottle in her hands, 'Do you want me to open it or..?'

Lexa scowled at Clarke, possessively holding the bottle closer to her, 'I think I can manage, thank you,' With almost no effort, Lexa twisted the top off her bottle, barely concealing a smirk as she gave Clarke a pointed look, 'See, told you.' Lexa took a swig of the drink, holding the bottle up to her lips, and nearly spat it out, opting to pull a face instead. That nearly made Clarke fall off the bed in laughter. Lexa frowned at the bottle, feeling slightly betrayed that it had done that to her after everything.

'Too strong for ya, hey? I guess it's true about what they say about American beer,' there was still laughter in Clarke's voice, but it was evident that she was trying to hold back.

'Now what exactly is wrong with American beer?' Lexa challenged, playfully glaring at the blonde. The beer was too strong, actually, but Lexa would never admit it. It was just a case of Lexa not being used to the drink, she would get used to it after a while.

'Hey, I didn't say that there was anything wrong with it. You're the one who said it.'

'…Shut up.'

Clarke burst out into laughter again, flinging her arm around Lexa. 'Don't worry. It's true when they say that XXXX isn't for everyone. Maybe you should try Fosters instead,' Lexa didn't miss the glint in Clarke's eyes. It seemed to be a fun game that everyone, especially Clarke and her friends, liked to play: make the tourist believe as many lies as possible, and then laugh when they confused. Lexa was certainly confused, she was sure that most people drank Fosters in Australia. But the way Clarke said it, it made Lexa think that maybe that was just a lie.

'So, Lexa,' Raven said after a while, the attention of the room turning to them, 'what'd ya think of the game?'

'I very much enjoyed it, even though it's a little confusing. I don't know much about how it works.' That was a lie. Lexa knew nothing about how the game worked, only that dropping the ball after it had touched you was called a knock on.

'That's fixable,' Raven grinned, sharing a conspiring look with her friends, even Anya grinned. Lexa felt like something was going to happen, and it did.

Raven fixed the situation by explaining the rules of the game to Lexa, the other girls joining in to help, sometimes even getting up and demonstrating what they were talking about. By this point, they were all four or five drinks in, which meant that everyone was laughing uncontrollably as Octavia did her best impression of kicking a conversion.

'You absolute dag,' Clarke laughed as Octavia fell over. No one made a move to help Octavia up; they all just sat around laughing, even Octavia was laughing. Lexa wasn't sure how Octavia had done it, but she hadn't spilt a drop of beer on the ground as she fell. That just made Lexa laugh harder.


End file.
